JPH0543470A - Alcoholic fat liver suppresser - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a substance being completely safe to human body and having action capable of positively suppressing an alcoholic fat liver. CONSTITUTION:The objective suppresser containing a hemicellulose obtained by removing starch, protein, etc., from corn wheat bran and extracting the residual part with an alkali and/or partially decomposed product of hemicellulose obtained by further treating the hemicellulose with xylanase as an active ingredient. When the alcoholic fat liver suppresser is taken in as a drink and food or medicine, alcoholic fat liver is suppressed even in drinking.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance which has the effect of suppressing the occurrence of alcoholic fatty liver and keeping the liver function normal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Fatty liver refers to a state in which lipids are abnormally increased in hepatocytes and causes symptoms such as anorexia, weight loss, and fatigue with the accumulation of fat. In addition, fatty liver may develop into fatty cirrhosis. The mechanism of fatty liver development is not yet well understood, but according to previous studies, it is considered as follows.

That is, the liver plays an important role in the metabolism and transfer of fat, and in a normal state, the balance of fat in the liver is kept in a certain equilibrium state. Neutral fat in the liver is derived from diet-derived fatty acids in chylomicrons, free fatty acids mobilized from peripheral adipose tissue, and newly synthesized fatty acids in the liver. A part of the fatty acids newly synthesized or transferred to the liver is oxidatively decomposed in the liver, but a part thereof is esterified by microsomes in the liver to become a neutral fat, which is bound to a protein and then lipophilic. It is secreted into the bloodstream in the form of protein. The turnover of neutral fat is faster than that of other fats and the labeled free fatty acid administered intravenously is already found in lipoproteins in the bloodstream at 20 minutes.
In this way, hepatic triglyceride is in equilibrium with relatively fast metabolism and rotation, but it disturbs this equilibrium, that is, an imbalance occurs between the amount of triglyceride produced and its utilization in the liver. When such a disorder is added, fatty liver occurs.

The causes of fatty liver are, in principle, (1) increase in fat synthesis in the liver, (2) decrease in fatty acid oxidation in the liver, (3) increase in mobilization of fat from the stored fat to the liver,
(4) A decrease in the movement of fat from the liver to the periphery is considered to be the cause of these abnormalities.Severe anemia, deficiency of oxygen due to circulatory disorders, endocrine disorders due to Graves' disease, metabolism due to positive childhood constitution, etc. Many causes such as sexually transmitted diseases, pancreatic diseases, malnutrition, exogenous poisons or drugs due to alcohol, phosphorus, mushroom poison, etc., endogenous poisons due to chronic infectious diseases, dietary fat and carbohydrate, small bowel bypass surgery, etc. There is. Therefore, there are many kinds of causes of fatty liver, and appropriate treatment must be performed according to each cause.

The present inventors have studied the physiologically active effects of various dietary fibers obtained from the hulls of cereals and legumes, and found that they have an action of activating liver function, A patent application has already been filed (JP-A-62-20).
1820, JP-A-63-135334). These have an action of suppressing the elevation of GOT and GPT in blood in the experiment when D-galactosamine (a substance that artificially causes liver damage) is administered to rats. In addition, the present inventors, in the experiment to administer orotic acid to rats to artificially generate fatty liver, by ingesting hemicellulose prepared from corn bran or wheat bran into rats, the development of fatty liver It has been found that it is suppressed, and a patent application has already been filed as a fatty liver suppressing substance (JP-A-1-242530).

[0006]

However, as described above, there are many kinds of causes of fatty liver, and if treatments are not performed according to each cause,
Unable to obtain a reliable therapeutic effect. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-24
No. 2530 discloses that hemicellulose prepared from corn bran or wheat bran has an inhibitory effect on fatty liver, but the inhibitory effect in an experiment in which orotic acid is administered to a rat to artificially generate fatty liver is disclosed. Therefore, it was not clear in what cause it was actually effective against fatty liver.

As a result of further intensive studies in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present inventors have found that hemicellulose prepared from corn bran and partial decomposition products thereof are particularly effective in suppressing alcoholic fatty liver. The present invention has been completed. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a substance which is completely safe for the human body and has an action of actively suppressing alcoholic fatty liver.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance according to the present invention is characterized in that hemicellulose obtained from corn bran and / or its partially decomposed product is a main component. To do.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to preferred embodiments.

The alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance of the present invention is
Hemicellulose obtained from corn bran and /
Alternatively, it is sufficient if the main component is a partially decomposed product thereof,
Any method may be adopted as a method for extracting hemicellulose and a method for decomposing it. For example, as the extraction method, extraction with an alkali or acid, pressurization with an extruder or an autoclave, extraction with hot water, extraction with an enzymatic agent such as cellulase, or the like, or any combination thereof can be adopted.

However, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, hemicellulose obtained by removing starches, proteins and the like from corn bran and extracting the rest with alkali is adopted, and the partially decomposed product of hemicellulose is
This hemicellulose further treated with xylanase is adopted.

The preferred method for producing hemicellulose and its partially decomposed products used in the present invention is as follows.

That is, when hemicellulose is obtained, corn bran can be extracted with alkali as it is to obtain a component rich in hemicellulose. However, in order to obtain hemicellulose with higher purity, starch, protein, It is preferable to carry out alkali extraction after removing lipids and minerals as necessary.

From corn bran to starch, protein,
Further, as a method for removing lipids, inorganic substances and the like as required, any of enzyme treatment, chemical treatment and physical treatment may be adopted, or these may be appropriately combined. The enzyme treatment is carried out, for example, with a starch-degrading enzyme such as α-amylase and glucoamylase, a proteolytic enzyme such as protease, a lipolytic enzyme such as lipase, and a fibrinolytic enzyme such as cellulase at a pH of 3 to 9 and a temperature of 30 to 100 ° C. It is carried out by adding and treating under the conditions. Further, the chemical treatment is carried out, for example, by adding an aqueous solution of a mineral acid or an organic acid to corn bran and heating it under the condition of pH 2 to 5, or adding a surfactant for food, and under the condition of pH 3 to 8. It is performed by heat treatment. Further, the physical treatment is carried out, for example, by crushing corn bran using a homogenizer, a hammer mill or the like and then sieving.

After treating the corn bran in this way, alkali extraction is carried out. The alkali extraction is carried out by adding an alkaline aqueous solution such as an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution and mixing them to elute the non-cellulosic polysaccharides. The hemicellulose used in the present invention may be used as it is in an unpurified state by neutralizing the alkali extract, or the neutralized product may be further purified by the following operations and used. That is, the protein precipitated by neutralization is separated and removed by means such as centrifugation, and the supernatant is dialyzed, ion-exchange resin treatment, ion-exchange membrane treatment, ultrafiltration membrane treatment, alcohol purification, if necessary. Hemicellulose of any purity can be obtained by treating with a filter medium alone or in combination as appropriate.

The partially decomposed hemicellulose used in the present invention can be obtained by further treating the hemicellulose obtained by alkali extraction from corn bran as described above with xylanase. As the xylanase, a liquefied one is preferable to a saccharified one, and either a fungal origin or a bacterial origin can be used, but a bacterial origin xylanase is preferable because of its higher purity. As a particularly preferred example, the optimum pH on the alkaline side is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-13357.
Alkaline xylanase having

The enzyme reaction is carried out by adjusting the pH of a solution containing hemicellulose obtained by alkali extraction from corn bran with sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid or the like, and adding xylanase at a temperature of 50 to 60 ° C. React. The amount of xylanase added is 0.001 per 1 g of the solid content of the extract.
It is preferably about 10 units and the reaction time is preferably about 3 to 96 hours. The titer of xylanase was measured using hemicellulose obtained by extracting alkali from corn bran as a substrate under the reaction conditions of pH 7 and 60 ° C to produce 1 μmol xylose of reducing sugar per minute. Was set as 1 unit.

The reaction solution obtained by reacting xinalase as described above is heated to deactivate the enzyme, and then,
Solid-liquid separation is carried out by centrifugation or the like, clarification filtration is carried out if necessary, and further, decolorization, desalting treatment, concentration and drying can be carried out to obtain a partially decomposed product of hemicellulose.

Further, a solution containing hemicellulose as a main component obtained by treating corn bran with an alkali is subjected to solid-liquid separation, clarified and filtered, and then pH-adjusted and treated with xylanase to deactivate, decolorize and desalt the enzyme. It can also be treated, concentrated and dried.

The partially decomposed product of hemicellulose prepared from corn bran by the above method is
It is commercially available as "CELLACE" (trade name, manufactured by Nippon Shokuhin Kako Co., Ltd.), and it can be used as it is.

In the present invention, the partially decomposed product of hemicellulose has a 5% aqueous solution having a viscosity of B type viscometer, 60 rpm.
The molecular weight is preferably adjusted so as to be 3 to 20 cps when measured at 25 ° C. When the molecular weight is higher than this, when added to the raw material of foods and drinks, there is a drawback that the viscosity becomes too high, and when the molecular weight is lower than this, the physiologically active effect as dietary fiber may be lost. There is.

The alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance of the present invention is
It is composed mainly of the above hemicellulose and / or its partially decomposed product. However, in addition to the above hemicellulose and / or its partially decomposed products, starch, proteins, etc. that could not be completely removed, and some lignin, cellulose,
Ash, etc. may be contained. The alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance of the present invention can be commercialized as an aqueous solution, a concentrated liquid or a dry powder containing the above hemicellulose and / or its partially decomposed product. Even when it is made into a dry powder, it is very soluble in water, and a homogeneous solution is likely to be formed, so that the preparation is easy. Therefore, the alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance of the present invention can be used as it is as a healthy food or drink, or as a medicine, and by adding a small amount to the food or drink, the flavor of the food or drink, the alcoholic fat without damaging the texture. A liver suppressing effect can be imparted.

[0023]

The present inventors, in an experiment in which an ethanol solution is administered to a rat to artificially induce alcoholic fatty liver, the hemicellulose obtained from corn bran and / or a portion thereof was administered before the administration of the ethanol solution. It was found that the occurrence of fatty liver symptoms was suppressed when the decomposed product was mixed with feed and ingested. Although this experiment was carried out in rats, an excellent effect can be expected in suppressing alcoholic fatty liver in humans.

[0024] It is not clear why alcoholic fatty liver is suppressed when hemicellulose obtained from corn bran and / or its partially decomposed product is taken with alcohol. It is considered that the obtained hemicellulose and / or its partially decomposed product is utilized by intestinal bacteria to produce a fermentation byproduct, and this fermentation byproduct acts on the living body to suppress fat accumulation in hepatocytes.

The hemicellulose obtained from corn bran and / or its partially decomposed product is a substance which is completely safe for the human body and can be safely taken as a medicine, a food additive or a food or drink. Since the partially decomposed product of hemicellulose has a low viscosity when added to a raw material such as food and drink, it has an advantage that the texture and flavor of the food and drink can be kept good.

[0026]

[Examples] Using the above-described method, hemicellulose alkali-extracted from corn bran was partially decomposed with xylanase to obtain a partially decomposed product of hemicellulose "Celace" (trade name, manufactured by Nippon Shokubai Co., Ltd.) An experiment was conducted on the inhibitory effect on the development of fatty liver when ethanol was administered.

(1) Experimental method A male Duryu strain rat having a body weight of about 50 g was fed with a solid diet "M" for breeding.
F "(trade name, manufactured by Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.)
After breeding for 7 days, 3 groups of basic group, control group, cell ace group
The two groups, the basic group and the control group, were fed with the experimental feeds shown in Table 1, and the Cell Ace group was fed with the feeds in which 5% by weight of the experimental feeds in Table 1 were replaced with the "Cell Ace". 17
Reared for days.

[0028]

[Table 1] (In Table 1, mineral mixture and vitamin mixture are J. N.
utr., 107, 1349 (1977). )

At 5 pm on the 17th day, from the gastric tube, 45 W / V% glucose solution was added to the basic group, 25 W / V% ethanol solution to the control group and the cellulose group, and 2 m per 100 g of body weight.
l was administered. Then, the next day, the animals were sacrificed at 9 am, blood was collected, and the liver was removed. The collected blood was centrifuged to obtain plasma. Plasma and liver were stored in a −50 ° C. freezer until analysis.

The amount of weight gain after feeding for 17 days and the amount of feed intake for 17 days were measured.
The amounts of triglyceride, cholesterol and phospholipid were measured, and for plasma, the amounts of triglyceride, cholesterol, phospholipid, GOT, GPT and γ-GTP were measured. The results are shown in Table 2.

[0031]

[Table 2]

From the above results, after "Cell Ace", which is a partial decomposition product of corn hemicellulose, was fed together with a normal feed for 17 days, the cell Ace group to which ethanol was administered was given the normal feed and ethanol was not administered to the basic group. The body weight gain, the feed intake, and the liver weight were smaller than those of the control group that was given ethanol after being fed only the normal feed. In addition, the Cell Ace group, compared to the control group, total liver lipids, triglycerides, cholesterol,
Plasma triglyceride, cholesterol, phospholipids, G
It can be seen that OT and GPT are low, and some of them are lower than the basic group.

From these results, it is recognized that the partially decomposed product of corn hemicellulose has an action of suppressing fatty liver on fatty liver formation of rats by administration of ethanol solution.

[0034]

As described above, it was found that the alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance of the present invention has an excellent alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing action in an experiment in which it was administered to rats with alcohol. Therefore, it is expected to have an excellent effect on suppressing alcoholic fatty liver in humans. Further, the fatty liver-suppressing substance of the present invention is composed of hemicellulose obtained from corn bran and / or a partial decomposition product thereof, and therefore is a substance which is completely safe for the human body and can be safely taken as a drug, a food additive or a food or drink. can do. Furthermore, the partially decomposed product of hemicellulose is
Since it has a low viscosity when added to raw materials such as foods and drinks, it also has an advantage that the texture and flavor of foods and drinks can be kept good.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance containing, as a main component, hemicellulose obtained from corn bran and / or a partially decomposed product thereof. 2. The alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance according to claim 1, wherein the hemicellulose is obtained by removing starch, protein and the like from corn bran and extracting the remainder with alkali. 3. The alcoholic fatty liver-suppressing substance according to claim 1, wherein the partially decomposed product of hemicellulose is obtained by treating the hemicellulose according to claim 2 with xylanase.